Chapter 17

I found the processes at the warehouse quite as interesting as
Edith had described them, and became even enthusiastic over
the truly remarkable illustration which is seen there of the
prodigiously multiplied efficiency which perfect organization can
give to labor. It is like a gigantic mill, into the hopper of which
goods are being constantly poured by the train-load and shipload,
to issue at the other end in packages of pounds and ounces,
yards and inches, pints and gallons, corresponding to the
infinitely complex personal needs of half a million people. Dr.
Leete, with the assistance of data furnished by me as to the way
goods were sold in my day, figured out some astounding results
in the way of the economies effected by the modern system.

As we set out homeward, I said: "After what I have seen
to-day, together with what you have told me, and what I learned
under Miss Leete's tutelage at the sample store, I have a
tolerably clear idea of your system of distribution, and how it
enables you to dispense with a circulating medium. But I should
like very much to know something more about your system of
production. You have told me in general how your industrial
army is levied and organized, but who directs its efforts? What
supreme authority determines what shall be done in every
department, so that enough of everything is produced and yet no
labor wasted? It seems to me that this must be a wonderfully
complex and difficult function, requiring very unusual endowments."

"Does it indeed seem so to you?" responded Dr. Leete. "I
assure you that it is nothing of the kind, but on the other hand
so simple, and depending on principles so obvious and easily
applied, that the functionaries at Washington to whom it is
trusted require to be nothing more than men of fair abilities to
discharge it to the entire satisfaction of the nation. The machine
which they direct is indeed a vast one, but so logical in its
principles and direct and simple in its workings, that it all but
runs itself; and nobody but a fool could derange it, as I think you
will agree after a few words of explanation. Since you already
have a pretty good idea of the working of the distributive system,
let us begin at that end. Even in your day statisticians were able
to tell you the number of yards of cotton, velvet, woolen, the
number of barrels of flour, potatoes, butter, number of pairs
of shoes, hats, and umbrellas annually consumed by the nation.
Owing to the fact that production was in private hands, and
that there was no way of getting statistics of actual distribution,
these figures were not exact, but they were nearly so.
Now that every pin which is given out from a national warehouse
is recorded, of course the figures of consumption for any
week, month, or year, in the possession of the department of
distribution at the end of that period, are precise. On these
figures, allowing for tendencies to increase or decrease and for
any special causes likely to affect demand, the estimates, say for a
year ahead, are based. These estimates, with a proper margin for
security, having been accepted by the general administration, the
responsibility of the distributive department ceases until the
goods are delivered to it. I speak of the estimates being furnished
for an entire year ahead, but in reality they cover that much time
only in case of the great staples for which the demand can be
calculated on as steady. In the great majority of smaller
industries for the product of which popular taste fluctuates, and
novelty is frequently required, production is kept barely ahead of
consumption, the distributive department furnishing frequent
estimates based on the weekly state of demand.

"Now the entire field of productive and constructive industry
is divided into ten great departments, each representing a group
of allied industries, each particular industry being in turn
represented by a subordinate bureau, which has a complete record of
the plant and force under its control, of the present product, and
means of increasing it. The estimates of the distributive department,
after adoption by the administration, are sent as mandates
to the ten great departments, which allot them to the subordinate
bureaus representing the particular industries, and these set
the men at work. Each bureau is responsible for the task given it,
and this responsibility is enforced by departmental oversight and
that of the administration; nor does the distributive department
accept the product without its own inspection; while even if in
the hands of the consumer an article turns out unfit, the system
enables the fault to be traced back to the original workman. The
production of the commodities for actual public consumption
does not, of course, require by any means all the national force
of workers. After the necessary contingents have been detailed
for the various industries, the amount of labor left for other
employment is expended in creating fixed capital, such as
buildings, machinery, engineering works, and so forth."

"One point occurs to me," I said, "on which I should think
there might be dissatisfaction. Where there is no opportunity for
private enterprise, how is there any assurance that the claims of
small minorities of the people to have articles produced, for
which there is no wide demand, will be respected? An official
decree at any moment may deprive them of the means of
gratifying some special taste, merely because the majority does
not share it."

"That would be tyranny indeed," replied Dr. Leete, "and you
may be very sure that it does not happen with us, to whom
liberty is as dear as equality or fraternity. As you come to know
our system better, you will see that our officials are in fact, and
not merely in name, the agents and servants of the people. The
administration has no power to stop the production of any
commodity for which there continues to be a demand. Suppose
the demand for any article declines to such a point that its
production becomes very costly. The price has to be raised in
proportion, of course, but as long as the consumer cares to pay it,
the production goes on. Again, suppose an article not before
produced is demanded. If the administration doubts the reality
of the demand, a popular petition guaranteeing a certain basis
of consumption compels it to produce the desired article. A government,
or a majority, which should undertake to tell the people,
or a minority, what they were to eat, drink, or wear, as I
believe governments in America did in your day, would be regarded
as a curious anachronism indeed. Possibly you had reasons
for tolerating these infringements of personal independence,
but we should not think them endurable. I am glad you
raised this point, for it has given me a chance to show you how
much more direct and efficient is the control over production
exercised by the individual citizen now than it was in your day,
when what you called private initiative prevailed, though it
should have been called capitalist initiative, for the average
private citizen had little enough share in it."

"You speak of raising the price of costly articles," I said. "How
can prices be regulated in a country where there is no competition
between buyers or sellers?"

"Just as they were with you," replied Dr. Leete. "You think
that needs explaining," he added, as I looked incredulous, "but
the explanation need not be long; the cost of the labor which
produced it was recognized as the legitimate basis of the price of
an article in your day, and so it is in ours. In your day, it was the
difference in wages that made the difference in the cost of labor;
now it is the relative number of hours constituting a day's work
in different trades, the maintenance of the worker being equal in
all cases. The cost of a man's work in a trade so difficult that in
order to attract volunteers the hours have to be fixed at four a
day is twice as great as that in a trade where the men work eight
hours. The result as to the cost of labor, you see, is just the same
as if the man working four hours were paid, under your system,
twice the wages the others get. This calculation applied to the
labor employed in the various processes of a manufactured article
gives its price relatively to other articles. Besides the cost of
production and transportation, the factor of scarcity affects the
prices of some commodities. As regards the great staples of life,
of which an abundance can always be secured, scarcity is
eliminated as a factor. There is always a large surplus kept on
hand from which any fluctuations of demand or supply can be
corrected, even in most cases of bad crops. The prices of the
staples grow less year by year, but rarely, if ever, rise. There are,
however, certain classes of articles permanently, and others
temporarily, unequal to the demand, as, for example, fresh fish
or dairy products in the latter category, and the products of high
skill and rare materials in the other. All that can be done here is
to equalize the inconvenience of the scarcity. This is done by
temporarily raising the price if the scarcity be temporary, or
fixing it high if it be permanent. High prices in your day meant
restriction of the articles affected to the rich, but nowadays,
when the means of all are the same, the effect is only that those
to whom the articles seem most desirable are the ones who
purchase them. Of course the nation, as any other caterer for the
public needs must be, is frequently left with small lots of goods
on its hands by changes in taste, unseasonable weather and
various other causes. These it has to dispose of at a sacrifice just
as merchants often did in your day, charging up the loss to the
expenses of the business. Owing, however, to the vast body of
consumers to which such lots can be simultaneously offered,
there is rarely any difficulty in getting rid of them at trifling loss.
I have given you now some general notion of our system of
production; as well as distribution. Do you find it as complex as
you expected?"

I admitted that nothing could be much simpler.

"I am sure," said Dr. Leete, "that it is within the truth to say
that the head of one of the myriad private businesses of your
day, who had to maintain sleepless vigilance against the fluctuations
of the market, the machinations of his rivals, and the
failure of his debtors, had a far more trying task than the group
of men at Washington who nowadays direct the industries of
the entire nation. All this merely shows, my dear fellow, how
much easier it is to do things the right way than the wrong. It is
easier for a general up in a balloon, with perfect survey of the
field, to manoeuvre a million men to victory than for a sergeant
to manage a platoon in a thicket."

"The general of this army, including the flower of the manhood
of the nation, must be the foremost man in the country,
really greater even than the President of the United States," I
said.

"He is the President of the United States," replied Dr. Leete,
"or rather the most important function of the presidency is the
headship of the industrial army."

"How is he chosen?" I asked.

"I explained to you before," replied Dr. Leete, "when I was
describing the force of the motive of emulation among all grades
of the industrial army, that the line of promotion for the
meritorious lies through three grades to the officer's grade, and
thence up through the lieutenancies to the captaincy or foremanship,
and superintendency or colonel's rank. Next, with an intervening
grade in some of the larger trades, comes the general
of the guild, under whose immediate control all the operations
of the trade are conducted. This officer is at the head of the
national bureau representing his trade, and is responsible for its
work to the administration. The general of his guild holds a
splendid position, and one which amply satisfies the ambition of
most men, but above his rank, which may be compared--to
follow the military analogies familiar to you--to that of a
general of division or major-general, is that of the chiefs of the
ten great departments, or groups of allied trades. The chiefs of
these ten grand divisions of the industrial army may be compared
to your commanders of army corps, or lieutenant-generals,
each having from a dozen to a score of generals of separate guilds
reporting to him. Above these ten great officers, who form his
council, is the general-in-chief, who is the President of the
United States.

"The general-in-chief of the industrial army must have passed
through all the grades below him, from the common laborers up.
Let us see how he rises. As I have told you, it is simply by the
excellence of his record as a worker that one rises through the
grades of the privates and becomes a candidate for a lieutenancy.
Through the lieutenancies he rises to the colonelcy, or superintendent's
position, by appointment from above, strictly limited
to the candidates of the best records. The general of the guild
appoints to the ranks under him, but he himself is not
appointed, but chosen by suffrage."

"By suffrage!" I exclaimed. "Is not that ruinous to the
discipline of the guild, by tempting the candidates to intrigue for
the support of the workers under them?"

"So it would be, no doubt," replied Dr. Leete, "if the workers
had any suffrage to exercise, or anything to say about the choice.
But they have nothing. Just here comes in a peculiarity of our
system. The general of the guild is chosen from among the
superintendents by vote of the honorary members of the guild,
that is, of those who have served their time in the guild and
received their discharge. As you know, at the age of forty-five we
are mustered out of the army of industry, and have the residue
of life for the pursuit of our own improvement or recreation. Of
course, however, the associations of our active lifetime retain a
powerful hold on us. The companionships we formed then
remain our companionships till the end of life. We always
continue honorary members of our former guilds, and retain the
keenest and most jealous interest in their welfare and repute in
the hands of the following generation. In the clubs maintained
by the honorary members of the several guilds, in which we
meet socially, there are no topics of conversation so common as
those which relate to these matters, and the young aspirants for
guild leadership who can pass the criticism of us old fellows are
likely to be pretty well equipped. Recognizing this fact, the
nation entrusts to the honorary members of each guild the
election of its general, and I venture to claim that no previous
form of society could have developed a body of electors so
ideally adapted to their office, as regards absolute impartiality,
knowledge of the special qualifications and record of candidates,
solicitude for the best result, and complete absence of self-
interest.

"Each of the ten lieutenant-generals or heads of departments
is himself elected from among the generals of the guilds grouped
as a department, by vote of the honorary members of the guilds
thus grouped. Of course there is a tendency on the part of each
guild to vote for its own general, but no guild of any group has
nearly enough votes to elect a man not supported by most of the
others. I assure you that these elections are exceedingly lively."

"The President, I suppose, is selected from among the ten
heads of the great departments," I suggested.

"Precisely, but the heads of departments are not eligible to the
presidency till they have been a certain number of years out of
office. It is rarely that a man passes through all the grades to the
headship of a department much before he is forty, and at the
end of a five years' term he is usually forty-five. If more, he still
serves through his term, and if less, he is nevertheless discharged
from the industrial army at its termination. It would not do for
him to return to the ranks. The interval before he is a candidate
for the presidency is intended to give time for him to recognize
fully that he has returned into the general mass of the nation,
and is identified with it rather than with the industrial army.
Moreover, it is expected that he will employ this period in
studying the general condition of the army, instead of that of the
special group of guilds of which he was the head. From among
the former heads of departments who may be eligible at the
time, the President is elected by vote of all the men of the
nation who are not connected with the industrial army."

"The army is not allowed to vote for President?"

"Certainly not. That would be perilous to its discipline, which
it is the business of the President to maintain as the representative
of the nation at large. His right hand for this purpose is the
inspectorate, a highly important department of our system; to
the inspectorate come all complaints or information as to defects
in goods, insolence or inefficiency of officials, or dereliction of
any sort in the public service. The inspectorate, however, does
not wait for complaints. Not only is it on the alert to catch and
sift every rumor of a fault in the service, but it is its business, by
systematic and constant oversight and inspection of every branch
of the army, to find out what is going wrong before anybody else
does. The President is usually not far from fifty when elected,
and serves five years, forming an honorable exception to the rule
of retirement at forty-five. At the end of his term of office, a
national Congress is called to receive his report and approve or
condemn it. If it is approved, Congress usually elects him to
represent the nation for five years more in the international
council. Congress, I should also say, passes on the reports of the
outgoing heads of departments, and a disapproval renders any
one of them ineligible for President. But it is rare, indeed, that
the nation has occasion for other sentiments than those of
gratitude toward its high officers. As to their ability, to have risen
from the ranks, by tests so various and severe, to their positions,
is proof in itself of extraordinary qualities, while as to faithfulness,
our social system leaves them absolutely without any other
motive than that of winning the esteem of their fellow citizens.
Corruption is impossible in a society where there is neither pov-
erty to be bribed nor wealth to bribe, while as to demagoguery
or intrigue for office, the conditions of promotion render
them out of the question."

"One point I do not quite understand," I said. "Are the
members of the liberal professions eligible to the presidency?
and if so, how are they ranked with those who pursue the
industries proper?"

"They have no ranking with them," replied Dr. Leete. "The
members of the technical professions, such as engineers and
architects, have a ranking with the constructive guilds; but the
members of the liberal professions, the doctors and teachers, as
well as the artists and men of letters who obtain remissions of
industrial service, do not belong to the industrial army. On this
ground they vote for the President, but are not eligible to his
office. One of its main duties being the control and discipline of
the industrial army, it is essential that the President should have
passed through all its grades to understand his business."

"That is reasonable," I said; "but if the doctors and teachers
do not know enough of industry to be President, neither, I
should think, can the President know enough of medicine and
education to control those departments."

"No more does he," was the reply. "Except in the general way
that he is responsible for the enforcement of the laws as to all
classes, the President has nothing to do with the faculties of
medicine and education, which are controlled by boards of
regents of their own, in which the President is ex-officio chairman,
and has the casting vote. These regents, who, of course, are
responsible to Congress, are chosen by the honorary members of
the guilds of education and medicine, the retired teachers and
doctors of the country."

"Do you know," I said, "the method of electing officials by
votes of the retired members of the guilds is nothing more than
the application on a national scale of the plan of government by
alumni, which we used to a slight extent occasionally in the
management of our higher educational institutions."

"Did you, indeed?" exclaimed Dr. Leete, with animation.
"That is quite new to me, and I fancy will be to most of us, and
of much interest as well. There has been great discussion as to
the germ of the idea, and we fancied that there was for once
something new under the sun. Well! well! In your higher
educational institutions! that is interesting indeed. You must tell
me more of that."

"Truly, there is very little more to tell than I have told
already," I replied. "If we had the germ of your idea, it was but
as a germ."